I used to live in real cities: Hamburg, London, Honolulu. Then I moved to Los Angeles. Within a few weeks, I understood that Los Angeles is not a city, it’s a conglomerate of disparate communities. The majority of Angelenos live a pod lifestyle. From home pod to work pod to entertainment pod.

We have communities within our pods but it’s hard to experience Los Angeles as a cohesive community. (Except when the Lakers are winning the NBA title.)

Creating a cohesive Los Angeles experience

I’m following closely the emerging technology of location-awareness and believe it will help create hyper-local experiences. It’s not about creating a separate, virtual reality. It’s about creating a layer on top of our human experience. Combining both thoughts resulted in this idea:

“The Los Angeles Soundscape app tries to communicate the uniqueness and local identity of each small community through music/sound composed by local musicians/artists from that specific community. The app is location-aware and will change based on your location; community soundscapes will overlap and interact in dynamic ways, yielding a unique experience with each listen. The app is best enjoyed while driving (car/bus/bike) but will respond to slower paces as well.

The vision is to create a musical Venn diagram placed over the urban landscape of Los Angeles, at any time you might multiple tracks playing in your ear, colliding in surprising ways. The roads you take determine what you hear and we expect users to discover new neighborhoods, experience the local spirit and inspiration of the specific soundscape.

(…)

The ultimate objective of this is to encourage Angelenos and visitors to explore this amazing city outside of their typical routes and tourist spots. And help transform the sprawling suburbia into a real community.”

Let’s get it done

The project was submitted to Kickstarter, a funding platform for innovative projects. It’s the perfect platform to really explore what forms art can take. The site accepts pledges starting at $1 and you can get special values starting at a pledge of $10. Even if you don’t give money but like the idea, a mention would be appreciated.